Picnic Business

General food trends--such as poultry surpassing beef as the meat of choice and increasing consumption of seafood--are mirrored in outdoor cooking, though slowly, said Westlake Village caterer Kay Corning, who’d love to devise low-fat, low-cholesterol barbecue menus.

Manufacturers are responding by devising ways of reducing food-burning flare-ups and enhancing barbecue flavors from both charcoal-burning braziers and the volcanic rock or pumice stone frequently used for heating with gas-fired grills. A Weber unit has patented porcelain-on-steel bars that vaporize meat juices; Charmglow offers a perforated grate that spreads heat evenly to dissipate juices and leave more barbecue flavor; Nordic uses a four-piece design of porcelain-coated grill louvers for similar results, and Ducane combines volcanic rocks and louvers.

Total sales of barbecue grills of all types--charcoal, gas and electric--fell 4.3% in 1986-87 to 12.7 million units, then rebounded to 13.1 million for the season ended last Aug. 30. But a breakdown shows steady to strong growth in sales of grills that emphasized convenience.

While charcoal grills accounted for 9.1 million units sold, up from 8.9 million, that still lagged behind the 9.7 million charcoal grills sold in the record 1985-86 season. In contrast, sales of gas grills grew steadily: 3.4 million units sold in 1985-86, 3.7 million in 1986-87 and 3.9 million last year. And the still-small category of electric grills showed the most remarkable surge of all: After sales dropped from 120,000 units sold in 1985-86 to 99,200 the next year, a 17.4% fall, sales jumped 35.8% last year to 134,700 units.

Still, sales of charcoal briquettes nearly quintupled over 15 years from $88 million in 1973 to a record $434 million last year, though annual sales have mostly held steady in the 1980s. In tonnage, consumers bought a record 782,268 tons of briquettes last year, up 3.14%, after two years of decline.

Nonetheless, economics are on the side of gas: Southern California Gas Co. calculated the cost per cookout using charcoal and lighter fluid at $1.69, at 6 cents for natural gas and at 19 cents for propane. At those prices, two cookouts a week for nine months would require $394.52 in charcoal, $44.08 in propane and just $13.27 in natural gas.